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Book reviews for "Thorndike,_Susan" sorted by average review score:

Holly and Mistletoe (Thorndike Large Print Silhouette Series)
Published in Hardcover by Harlequin Mills & Boon (1999)
Author: Susan Mallery
Amazon base price: $21.95
Average review score:

The cat was annoying
Back Cover description: Holly Garrett was in trouble. The handsome stranger who'd saved her from a storm was now asking her for help. And he was inviting her to live with him. Sure, she could prepare evening meals and give him sponge baths, but nothing had prepared her for those sexy glances he threw her way...Jordan Haynes couldn't let Holly be alone for Christmas. Not when visions of her were dancing in his head night after night. No, he could play the needy patient as well as anyone...and convince her to keep him company through the holidays-- if not longer.

This is the last book in this series about the brothers. There is one more about the half sister. Likeable lead characters and the story does progress OK, but talk about a guy that broods. The cat really annoyed me however. Jordan risked his life for the cat, and as much as it might annoy cat lovers out there--a man's life is worth more. I would have felt better if he had risked his life for her. This is where you find out why he dislikes Louise (housekeeper). This is also the reason I didn't give it another star. Even Jordan had to have realized at his age that his dad, an adult, seduced a 17 year old with no experience. His dad did it a lot to just about any one in a skirt. Why blame Louise? This part annoyed me. Holly is carrying around her own 'baggage'-- but at least she's willing to take a risk. If you have read the others, you'll read this.

A Christmas fairy tale!
It's five in the morning and I just finished this book! It was so good I could not put it down! The love story between Holly and Jordan was so sweet. I guess I liked it so much because I own my own business ina small town and I met my husband when he walked in to my shop one day. I like Susan Mallery's writing. The way she makes you fall in love with the characters, and understand what they are going through is simply magical. Read this book and all five in the "Hometown Heartbreakers" series. You will not be disappointed!


Husband by the Hour (Thorndike Large Print Silhouette Series)
Published in Hardcover by Harlequin Mills & Boon (2000)
Author: Susan Mallery
Amazon base price: $22.95
Average review score:

Four cops and a fireman
Back Cover description: Groom for hire...Hannah Pace needed a pretend husband--fast! She lied to her long-lost mother about being married, and now she had to produce the groom. So she hired hometown bad boy Nick Archer. Though he wasn't every mother's dream, he sure was Hannah's hottest fantasy...Trouble was, Nick relished the part a bit too much. Dizzing kisses, heated glances, tender touches. Minute by minute, Nick's paid preformance was feeling all too real. And soon Hannah wanted him to be a husband for life...

If this is the end to the Hometown Heartbreakers series, then anyone who has read all the other books, should read this one too. It introduces the half-sister to the brothers-Travis, Jordan, Kyle and Craig. It's a little involved, there is a slight suspense story included because of Nick's undercover work. Hannah's birth mother is not dying and all ends well. It doesn't ring true all the time, but hey, this is romance!

A 'must-read' !!!
A pleasant surprise from Ms Mallery. The Haynes discover they have a sister!! The Haynes' curse is broken and sister Hannah finds love with no one else but a cop. Another emotion packed novel from Susan Mallery.


The Passion of Artemisia (Thorndike Press Large Print Women's Fiction Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (2002)
Author: Susan Vreeland
Amazon base price: $29.95
Used price: $27.99
Average review score:

Fascinating Subject, Poor Writing
I bought this book believing I would really, really love it. I love art, I love Italy, so...what was there not to love?

The Passion of Artemisia is the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, born in Rome in 1593. After the death of her mother, Artemisia was raised by her father, who was himself, an artist. Vreeland tells us that the book is, for the most part, historically accurate, and I have no reason to doubt her veracity. However, the historical portions, the descriptions of the art and the cities, etc., make up the only interesting parts of the book.

When the book opens, Artemisia is a girl of eighteen who stands at the center of a rape trial. Artemisia wants to see justice done, but her father has other ideas and other things on his mind and Artemisia is left ruined and unmarriageable.

Although unmarriageable, Artemisia does wed and only about a year later as well. The union is a relatively happy and peaceful one and her husband, also a painter, takes her to his native Florence where they both pursue their vocation until Artemisia gives birth to a daughter.

When Artemisia clearly proves to be the superior painter, her harmonious relationship she has enjoyed with her husband ends and she eventually leaves him, taking their daughter with her. She travels first to Genoa, then to Rome, then to Naples. She is determined to support both herself and her child as a painter, no matter how much society is against the idea.

Artemisia Gentileschi was a fascinating woman. She was the first woman admitted to the Florentine Academy, she was a woman who lived apart from her husband at a time when living apart from one's husband was virtually unknown. She moved in the same social circles as the Medicis and the other families of the Italian nobility. Artemisia was, as the title of the book, suggests, a passionate woman. So, what is the problem here?

The problem with this book is twofold. First, the character of Artemisia, as painted by Vreeland, is both dull and flat. Instead of giving us a fascinating character, Vreeland seems to be using Artemisia as a vehicle through which to give us her views of the issues of Renaissance Italy. Artemisia "talks" at length about science, art, religion and politics, but her views are not those of a passionate artist, they are the views of someone totally detached from the day-to-day life of the times. Unfortunately, we learn nothing about Artemisia's passion for her art, for her husband, for her child, for her homeland. This is the story of a cold and cerebral woman, not a passionate, life-affirming one. It is only when Artemisia is analyzing the painting of others that she becomes in the least bit interesting as a human being.

The second thing wrong with this book is the poor quality of the writing. The narrative prose is just awful. It is a mystery to me why Vreeland wrote this way and even more of a mystery as to why her editor (or even a first reader) didn't catch (and fix) the problems. Wherever the fault lies, there is simply no excuse to foist bad narrative prose on the book-buying public. It is really unforgiveable.

Artemisia Gentileschi was a fascinating and passionate woman. She certainly deserved better than this.

A good novel and art psychoanalysis piece
Similar to Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, Susan Vreeland creates character based on what she interprets in Artemisia Gentileschi's artwork. Vreeland is greatly aided by her real-life heroine's well-documented rape, and therefore it's easy to make the connection that her art would frequently be disquieting and violent. Vreeland intelligently concludes that this violence (in the depiction of blood, severed heads, and daggers) may be the reason that Artemisia's own daughter was repelled by her mother's art as a child. Here, Vreeland should be credited with the "invenzione" she bestows on her subject.

Artists frequently reflect that art is a lonely lifestyle, and Vreeland portrays the conflict between living for one's art and living for love. Artemisia fairly often comes across as self-absorbed, and then is later stunned when her husband or daughter rejects her in some form. It is probably a realistic if not wholly sympathetic portrayal. Occasionally, Vreeland interferes with her character by putting modern thoughts into her seventeenth century characters' heads. ("Let them wonder about that for centuries," Artemisia muses) Certainly a worthwhile read for art lovers, and also, I feel, a book that can generate discussion of the conflict of love and loyalty versus pursuit of one's art and independence. Excellent for book groups.

Artemisia- the name alone has passion.
I'm not sure I would say this book is full of passion, but certainly the writer has concerned herself with Artemisia's passion for art, and in that, the descriptions and feelings are endless and beautiful. The story is a good one, it flows beautifully into a reality you can absorb, and it is at times both intense and painfully shallow. Artemisia is not just an artist, she is a woman, a mother, a daughter, a person with deep insights and dark emotions. I think the author does a superb job of keeping the reader spellbound with this easy flowing story, and of joining both reader and characters together in an intricately weaved and artfully told environment. I could read it again, it's the kind of book you feel as though you could always learn something new from. There were parts I thought I should stop and write down, sentences and thoughts so beautifully phrased I wanted to preserve them. But I had borrowed the book, and an anxious next-reader was waiting. Read this book. It's excellent.


Black Ribbon: A Dog Lover's Mystery (Thorndike Large Print Americana Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1995)
Author: Susan Conant
Amazon base price: $24.95
Used price: $9.98
Average review score:

Where is the Mystery...and what do the Freemasons have to do
I discovered Susan Conant a few years ago. I am an avid Mystery reader and am always looking for new outhors and waiting for my favorites to write the next installment. The first book in the Holly Winter series that I read was somewhere half-way through the series. Last year I decided to start at the beginning. I am now reading Black Ribbon and I must say I am very disappointed. Miss Conant does indeed go on and on and on as Holly Winter warns, and as far as I can tell, about not much of anything that holds my interest. At least not in this book.
I love dogs (own two, one mixed Golden and one backyard-bred purebred Golden Retreiver.) I love the training tips in her books but object to her attitudes about mixed breeds and "pet quality" purebreds. My mixed Golden is as smart as Rowdy any day of the week and my backyard bred Golden is as sweet as a dog could be. They are my best buds.
I also take offense to her attitude about "anyone who weighs more than 150lbs." As a matter of fact, I do. I haven't always but I do now, and I wear shorts!! Perhaps Miss Conant is a size 2, if so, perhaps she should be on the cover of Vogue. If not, how about not being so negative about the rest of us. After all, we buy her books, at least we have up to this point.
And as far as the Freemasons go, who cares!! I purchased her books because I like the original premise...A woman who writes about dogs for a living, trains dogs for a hobby, and gets herself involved in mysteries. MY KIND OF GIRL!!! Hopefully the rest of the sereis will get back to Holly Winter, Dog Writer who has a Vet for her lover.... Where is he, anyway!!

She's no Agatha Christie
After seeking out and buying the entire Holly Winter series, this one -- my first hardcover purchase -- was the one that put me off the series for several years. Agatha Christie originally became famous by breaking one of the cardinal rules of the whodunnit (whoever is the murderer, it's NOT the narrator). In this book Conant breaks a different but even more important rule of the genre, which makes the entire novel pointless. I have not been so unhappy with a novel in this genre since Robert Goldsborough's faux 'Nero Wolfe' novel where the killer commits suicide halfway through the book, and the book continues on anyway. Later volumes in the Holly series recover some of the old magic, but this one is almost a total loss.

an OK mystery....authors hang-ups show
I've read a number of Conant's books and initially found them to be entertaining. However, I've gotten more and more irritated with her obsessive negativity about anyone weighing more than 150 lbs and her cartoonish characters. One line in this book about how awful shorts look on anyone weighing more than 150 lbs was particularly grating. Harumpf! It's interesting to read her summarization of Malamutes as well and how she excuses their worst behaviors (dog-dog aggression etc). It's even more amusing to those of us who have chosen a 'better' breed (hey, it's all relative!). Whatever....after this book, I'm not bothering to read any more of her books as Conant's style becomes very annoying with time. Harumpf again....


A Passionate Proposition (Thorndike Large Print Harlequin Series)
Published in Hardcover by Harlequin Mills & Boon (2002)
Author: Susan Napier
Amazon base price: $24.95
Average review score:

Where are the responsible adults?
Back Cover description: A proposition she can't refuse. Scott Tyler might want a red-hot affair with Anya Adams-but that doesn't mean he likes her. On the contrary, he's managed to get her suspended from her brand-new job! Realizing he's gone too far, Scoot offers Anya temporary employment at his home. But having her around every day is playing havoc with his self-control. Soon all he can think about is making Anya a proposition-that she share his bed, night after night, to their mutual satisfaction...
I have to disagree with the reader from Omaha, NE. The first few pages of this book were OK. They seemed to set up a good, strong heroine. It went downhill fast. She is a teacher/chaperone at a camp. She leaves all the sleeping teenagers to go off to get two that snuck out to a party. The first thing she should have done was get help. She gets to the party, sees everyone is drinking/doing pot/sex(?) and doesn't call the police. I don't know what the age of consent/drinking is in New Zealand, but someone had to be breaking the law. And the author manages to get Anya out of her clothes while she is confronting a drunken male senior. Enough already. Read RECKLESS CONDUCT instead of this. I think the reason I'm really annoyed is that, for the most part I liked the characters and wished they had a better plot.

ORDER IT TODAY!
Synopsis: Scott Tyler might want a red-hot affair with Anya Adams, but that doesn't mean he likes her. On the contrary, he's managed to get her suspended from her brand-new job! Realizing he's gone too far, Scott offers Anya temporary employment at his home. But having her around every day is playing havoc with his self-control. Soon all he can think about is making Anya a proposition that she share his bed, night after night, to their mutual satisfaction.

This is a well written romance with all of the pieces sexual tension, strong heroine, a hero that "sees the light" and a fun plot. I actually laughed a lot while reading this book. I would recommend this book to all romance readers.

ORDER IT TODAY!


Best Bride (Thorndike Large Print Silhouette Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1996)
Author: Susan Mallery
Amazon base price: $19.95
Average review score:

Wake up, lady and pay attention!
Back Cover description: With his sexy Stetson and X-rated grin, was Sheriff Travis Haynes Glenwood's leading lady-killer or Elizabeth Abbott and her daughter's knight in shining armor? Finally pulling her life back together, Elizabeth couldn't afford more heartbreak. Still, Travis was awfully tempting...With every fragment of her betrayed heart, Elizabeth longed to trust the legendary lawman--enough to become his bride and give her child a daddy. But would her shattering past forever hold her hostage...even from the love that could make her whole?

I gave this 3 stars because I liked Travis, and the way the story started. However, about half-way through the book, I became annoyed. Sorry to give part of the plot away, but Elizabeth was married (?) to a bigamist. She met the guy while in college. Her move to Glenwood is so she can start over where no one knows her. Now she's attracted to Travis, who has the Haynes boys' reputation of love 'em and leave 'em. The difference here is that everyone knows the guy, he's not married and just about everyone but Elizabeth can see he's serious about her. The last quarter of the book was just so much emoting about--how can I trust ever again--that I just read the end to finish it. This is part of the Haynes brothers series, so if you've read any of the others, you'll probably read this too.


The Devil's Protection (Thorndike Large Print Romance Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1999)
Author: Susan Clitheroe
Amazon base price: $20.95
Used price: $8.00
Average review score:

Good story marred by poor editing
This book could have benefited from a good copy editor: run-on sentences abound, and in other places, much-needed commas are conspicuously absent, muddying many otherwise elegantly framed sentences. More troubling still is Ms. Clitheroe's misuse of her hero's title. (He should be Augustin Vance, earl of Brewell or Lord Brewell, NEVER Lord Augustin or Lord Vance!) Fortunately, an engaging heroine, an attractive hero, and a lively plot go a long way toward making amends, rendering the book an enjoyable read in spite of its technical flaws.


The Millionaire Bachelor (Thorndike Large Print Silhouette Series)
Published in Hardcover by Silhouette (2001)
Author: Susan Mallery
Amazon base price: $23.95
Average review score:

Talking at midnight
Back cover description: The Virgin and the Brooding Bachelor...After spinning a tall tale about her life, Cathy Eldridge knew it was no wonder reclusive millionaire Stone Ward enjoyed their nightly conversations. For Cathy treasured the moments when he bared his soul, too. Then a twist of fate brought her face-to-face with her fantsy man...and into his home. Stone was many things, but mostly he was out of reach. Rich, good-looking and mysteriously sexy. What on earth would he see in her? The vulnerable virgin was determined to transform herself into the beauty she pretended to be. But that would come with a price. For her, that price was falling for the brooding millionaire bachelor who had sworn never to love again...

If you can go with the plot, it's a fine story. A little reminiscent of the movie, "Bells Are Ringing" with Judy Hilliday and Dean Martin. But this hero is wounded physically and in his heart. Cathy is a 20 pound overweight young woman who has given up her dreams. They both need one another, and the story deals with them accepting and coming to grips with the love they feel for each other.


Miss Melville Returns (Thorndike Large Print Basic Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1987)
Author: Evelyn E. Smith
Amazon base price: $18.95
Used price: $1.98
Collectible price: $6.35
Average review score:

More farce than mystery
Miss Melville does indeed return, and is as witty and sincere as she was in the original. Unfortunately, her supporting cast doesn't live up to her high standards. Jill, her agent, is just not credible enough for her role in Miss Melville's life, and Alex has lost a lot of his charm. Other characters introduced in the original have not been fleshed out to the extent that made "Miss Melville Regrets" a virtuoso perfomance. The story holds together despite these failings. The plot, especially as regards deceased artist extraordinaire Darius Moffet, is undeniably a farce, yet plausible in the New York art scene Smith depicts. Overall a good story, despite the weakness of the characterizations.


Red, White and Blue (Thorndike Large Print Basic Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) (1999)
Author: Susan Isaacs
Amazon base price: $30.95
Used price: $1.48
Collectible price: $6.31
Buy one from zShops for: $12.38
Average review score:

Big disappointment!
As an ardent Susan Isaac fan, and like most of her admirers, I was excited to find she had finally written another novel. I bought the book and looked forward, with relish, to the usual great read. The first (and major) part of the book dealt with the ancestry of the two (supposedly) main-characters-to-come. It was interesting, but just as I became involved with each new group of characters, they were gone. When we finally got to Charlie and Lauren, it felt as if everything moved along way too fast so the author could finish the book in the publisher's alloted number of pages. The fact that they were in bed together in a flash was very disappointing. I did not relate to them at all. And where was the tie-in with the first section of the book? What was the point??? It would have been nice if Charlie and Lauren had, at the very least, discovered their common ancestry. By the end of the book, I didn't care if they lived happily ever after or never saw each other again. The whole storyline about the white surpremacy group, Wrath, seemed very contrived, innocuous, and open-ended.

My advice to readers new to Ms. Isaacs is to start with one of her other novels. After reading "Shining Through," which I LOVED, I couldn't get enough of her wit and great writing style and read all the rest of her published books in succession. This one was such a letdown.

Ms. Isaacs, PLEASE go back to your former style!

swell pageturner
I never seem to be able to read S. Isaacs's books in a normal state of mind. It always turns into a verbal binge. I started last night while trying to elude the annoying strains of the excessively amplified top forty guitarist playing at the cafe outside the bookstore, and read straight through to the next day until the book was over. Isaacs's characters remind me of Elmore Leonard's: nice, smart, an interesting combo of tireless and the least bit fearful of becoming tired. They are sweetly ready to be inspired by love and adventure.

I was reading the other day that Isaac, in hebrew, means something like he who laughs, which seems fitting because Ms. I's books definitely display a sense of humor. There's an effortlessness to them. They reveal the ease of an adult who knows herself well and doesn't feel the need to pose or proove herself.

I found myself a little freaked out that the principals were both younger than I. It was so cool when she wrote about women in their forties. The 27 year old thing left me feeling a little lonely.

Ms. Susan is the only bestselling author I read consistently. As soon as I see her book on the shelf (this time under the pretext of sending it to my sister for Hanukkah), I either read it right there at Barnes and Noble or snarf it up, unable to tolerate the separation anxiety of it lying in the store overnight just as I'm getting involved.

The first thing I check is her pic. Over the years her image has transformed tastefully. I see she decided to stick with the spare and elegant Lily W. photo where she appears very much the tasteful, sexy, earthy Jewish woman writer.

I keep wondering when Hollywood will make some of these books into movies? I know, I know, Compromising Positions (who can forget such a great cast?) and the one with Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglass (WHICH star is supposed to be the jew?!) But I want to see After All These Years, where the abandoned wife has an affair with her son's drug dealer friend in the course of tracking down her husband's murderer.

Two more things: In the acknowledgements, Ms. I thanks Woody Allen. Are they friends? Do she and Elkan and Woody and Soon-yi meet for sushi? This cat is curious.

Also, I feel a little uncomfortable evaluating this author who feels more like an extremely cool aunt/cousin than a disembodied presence, I honestly do not know how to rate this book. In terms of companionship and entertainment, it proved a 5 star deal for me for sure. In terms of prose style, historical detail, intricacy of plot and character development, and layering of metaphor I find myself reflecting on how this book compared to another bestselling historical novel/ murder mystery, Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood. Judged by the aforementioned criteria, Isaacs's book is not, in my opinion, nearly as profound an accomplishment.

In my ideal world, Margaret and Susan and I would discuss the subject openly and without rancor. This is because R, W & B, like all of Isaacs's books, inspires in me the desire to hang out and shmooze with the author. So if you're ever in San Diego...

To the author: Thanks so much for continuing to provide such engaging work. My goal for your next novel is to read it sanely and moderately rather than devouring it like a bag of chips ahoys soaked in heroin.

An adventure, a love story and a patriotic tale that pleases
I loved Red, White and Blue for the same reason I loved Almost Paradise by the same writer...that beside the two main characters lives, you get their families' history. You literally know where they come from and what formed them.

Lauren, the NY reporter, and Charlie, the FBI agent from Jackson Wyoming couldn't be more different. Yet as the book shows, they share values and the past (tho they don't know it). I couldn't get over how they are descended from the same people who came to America 100 years earlier. Lauren and Charlie are investigating a bombing and I was so caught up in their lives! In large part, I think it's because I knew so much about them and their families it's as if my own relatives were up against the radicals who set the bomb. But I guess that's the point of the book, that we could be family, that one way or another, we Americans are all related. One more thing: The ending was one of the best I've read. So many times you read a good book and the last pages let you down. Not here!


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